Yesterday I made the point that while research universities and academic medical centers may be coded blue in many ways, they’re far from limited to blue states. Indeed, overall they tend to be more crucial to regional economies in red states and districts than in blue ones. And sure enough, Alabama’s junior senator Katie Britt (R), who inherited the seat from one-time boss Dick Shelby, has chimed in to support my argument. She ran to the local paper to promise to she’s going to work super hard with RFK Jr. to make sure her state doesn’t lose all its funding. “While the administration works to achieve this goal at NIH, a smart, targeted approach is needed in order to not hinder life-saving, groundbreaking research at high-achieving institutions like those in Alabama,” she told AL.com
A few facts. The University of Alabama at Birmingham is the largest employer in the state. It has received more than a billion dollars in NIH funding in recent years. The head of the Birmingham Business Alliance is quoted saying the whole thing is super bad. Birmingham’s Mayor Randall Woodfin (D) also seems to be freaking out. Britt wouldn’t stop talking: “We can eliminate administrative bloat and waste while not losing our competitive edge to adversaries like Communist China. I look forward to working with incoming HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to accomplish this vital mission and ensure our nation remains at the forefront of medical innovation, research, and patient care.”
The University of Alabama at Huntsville is comparably reliant on NIH funding grants. And we’re certain to see similar outcries from Republican representatives in other states as they find out often from Republican stakeholders in their states about what the NIH cuts mean for them. Then the question is likely to move on to whether Trump can shift the question from one of across-the-board cuts to cuts that only target institutions in blue states or simply any institutions that don’t support Donald Trump.
There’s a lot left to how this part of the story will play out.
(Ed.Note: This article originally said that UAB received $1 billion a year in NIH grants. That was incorrect. It has received “more than a billion dollars in NIH funding in recent years”, according to AL.com. We regret the error.)
